In the Baja Italy, the second round of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, X-raid succeeded in once again securing a top result. With their MINI ALL4 Racing, Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev / Konstatin Zhiltsov finished fourth, in the three-day event, while Poland’s Martin Kaczmarski and his Portuguese co-driver Filipe Palmeiro in the second MINI ALL4 Racing came sixth.
In the 10 generally very short special stages that featured distances of 18.77 or 44.29 kilometres, every second counted. In the end, Vasilyev crossed the finish line just 2:10 minutes behind the winner, Yazeed Al Rajhi, with Kaczmarski’s gap to the winner amounting to 3:19 minutes, in the end.
“The result is okay for us,” said X-raid Team Manager Sven Quandt. “Both MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles completed the event without encountering any problems whatsoever. Nonetheless, the two Bajas raced so far demonstrated that the Toyotas are very competitive, nevertheless.”
Overall result Baja Italy:
1st Y. Al Rahji (SAU) / T. Gottschalk (GER) Toyota – 3h 17m 15s
2nd B. Gadasin (RUS) / A. Kuzmich (RUS) G-Force Proto – 3h 17m 59s
3rd M. Dabrowski (POL) / J. Czachor (POL) Toyota – 3h 19m 07s
4th V. Vasilyev (RUS) / K. Zhiltsov (RUS) MINI ALL4 racing – 3h 19m 25s
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6th M. Kaczmarski (POL) / F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 3h 21m 04s
